Don Callender, who built the home-based baking business of his mother, Marie Callender, into a popular retail brand, died last week in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 81.
The cause of death was reported to be injuries Callender suffered in a fall in 2007.
Marie Callender and her husband, Cal, set up a wholesale bakery in Long Beach, Calif., in 1948, producing pies for restaurants. The popularity of these pies led son Don Callender to open a pie and coffee shop in Orange, Calif., in 1964. The Marie Callender’s Pie Shop was so successful that her son opened two more stores in the region.
At first, the stores sold only pies. But after experimenting with various recipes, Callender added hamburgers, ham sandwiches, chili and corn bread to the menu. By the time he sold the company in 1986 to Ramada Worldwide for a reported $80 million, the chain had grown to 120 locations nationwide.
Marie Callender died in 1995. Her son continued to work in the restaurant business until the end, starting Babe’s Barbecue and Brewhouse outlets in Southern California and a Jackalope Ranch restaurant in Indio, Calif., that opened the day after he died.